Salam Dubawi

Behind the scenes is Jim Goldie, a trainer based at Uplawmoor in Lanarkshire who clearly knows how to get horses ready to perform. The yard has sent out 88 winners already this season — a volume that suggests a well-run, busy operation that finds the right races for the right horses. Goldie's team placing Salam Dubawi at Hamilton Park, a tight, turning track that suits certain horses far better than others, looks like a shrewd call that paid off immediately.

With only 2 races on the clock and a race just yesterday, Salam Dubawi is very much a story still being written. But winning 1 from 2 — that is a 50% win rate, or to put it another way, this horse has won every time it has been good enough to get to the front — is the kind of early form that makes people pay attention. The next chapter will tell us whether Hamilton Park was a happy hunting ground or the start of something bigger.